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An Accidental Resource: the Social Ecological System Framework Applied to Small Wetlands in Sierran Foothill Oak Woodlands1

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An Accidental Resource: the Social Ecological System Framework Applied to Small Wetlands in Sierran Foothill Oak Woodlands1 An Accidental Resource: the Social Ecological System Framework Applied to Small Wetlands in Sierran Foothill Oak 1 Woodlands 2 2 3 Tracy V. Hruska, Lynn Huntsinger, and Jose L. Oviedo, Abstract An ongoing study of the small wetlands in the northern Sierra Nevada foothill oak woodlands that provide habitat for the state-threatened California black rail (Laterallus jamaicensis coturniculus) offers an example of the way that the social ecological systems (SES) framework can be used to analyze a natural resource problem. At the outset, it was hypothesized that the area’s hydrology, West Nile Virus from wetland mosquitos, the population ecology of the bird, and the decisions of landowners would have important impacts on the wetlands and birds. A SES framework was applied to identify and understand the interactions among ecological and human factors. The case of irrigated wetlands in Sierra foothill woodlands turns out to be an example of a fractured SES. Actions within the social system are having profound impacts on the natural system, but these resulting changes in the natural system appear to have little or no feedback to the social system. Intervention points identified include education of landowners, influencing water districts, and incentivizing conservation. Key words: California black rail, irrigation, pasture, water conservation, wildlife Introduction: social ecological systems Small wetlands in the northern Sierra Nevada foothill oak woodlands provide habitat for the state-threatened California black rail (Laterallus jamaicensis coturniculus). One ongoing study of the sustainability of the wetlands offers an example of the way that the social ecological systems (SES) framework can be used to analyze a natural resource problem. Fundamentally, a “social ecological system” is composed of an ecosystem and the people that interact with it. Such systems are complex and adaptive—society and environment are considered to “co-evolve” (Glaser and others 2008). Here we use the SES concept to assess the dimensions of sustainability for the rail and its wetlands, and at least some of the drivers that influence it. The SES concept is most often used where society derives a stream of benefits from the natural system. The fact that society is dependent upon and in turn affects the surrounding environment has probably been known at least since early humans learned how to make fire. Despite this lengthy history, strategies in the academic literature for successfully managing SES and applying the SES framework have generally remained vague. Specific management recommendations are hindered by the diversity and complexity of the systems, and authors stress that there is no universal formula. 1 An abbreviated version of this paper was presented at the Seventh California Oak Symposium: Managing Oak Woodlands in a Dynamic World, November 3-6, 2014, Visalia, California. 2 Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, 130 Mulford Hall MC 3110, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720. ([email protected]; [email protected]). 3 Institute of Public Goods and Policies (IPP), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Albasanz 26-28, 28037, Madrid, Spain. ([email protected]). 231 GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PSW-GTR-251 Scientific understanding of the interaction between society and the environment has often been hampered by the fact that neither social nor ecological systems occur at only one spatial or temporal scale. Interactions between scales are common and may cause either gradual or sudden transitions across multiple scales (Gunderson and Holling 2002, Levin 1992). Studies or monitoring efforts focusing on only one scale, typical in natural resource management, are prone to failure. Although the simultaneous interaction of processes at multiple scales is often included in the definition of SES as “nested, multilevel systems” (Binder and others 2013), monitoring or evaluating systems across scales is often beyond the budget and knowledge of natural resource managers or scientific researchers. For this reason, some authors have recommended concentrating analysis on interactions of specific sub-components (Roe 1998), while others have suggested that social-ecological interactions are typically determined by a small number of “controlling processes” that should be the analytic focal point (Holling 2001). In either case, the spatial or temporal scale of management is inadequate to address the scale of ecological processes, leading to bad, ineffectual, or no management (Cumming and others 2006). However, there are still a number of general guidelines and hazards to be aware of when thinking about how to apply the SES concept to management. One strategy is adaptive management, which is a response to the realization that previous command-and-control-style management made unrealistic assumptions about the degree to which ecological systems could be understood and predicted (Walters and Hilborn 1978). In simplified form, adaptive management consists of establishing a goal, conducting management activities designed to achieve that goal, monitoring and evaluating the effects of those activities, and altering the management plan in response. The challenge with adaptive management is that, not only is it difficult to establish institutionally (Jacobson and others 2006), but adaptive management plans tend to focus on the ecological system without adequate consideration of the social system, including the limitations of the manager. Adaptive management to achieve the sustainability of a SES, as opposed to a natural resource system, would be sensitive to the different tiers of social actors, ranging from individuals to organizations and government agencies, as well as the governance structures that limit their behavior and the social and economic trends that motivate them (Folke and others 2005). Some authors have highlighted land tenure regimes and legal structures that enable resource users to self-organize as key components of successful ecosystem management, where organized groups can effectively and collaboratively manage a resource they all depend on (Adger and Luttrell 2000, Folke and others 2005, Ostrom 1990). Collective adaptive management is often difficult or impossible, however, in cases where social conflict (Galaz 2005), domineering government regulation, or tenure configurations or other institutions prevent resource users from collaboration and adaptation (Ostrom 1990). Collaboration between multiple tiers of stakeholders, combined with ongoing monitoring of the natural system, is the best way to ensure sustainability of a SES. While the sustainability of small wetlands may seem like a simple case of turning on some water, the SES framework gives us a fuller picture of how sustainability might work, and the management initiatives needed, in the situation of the black rail in foothill oak woodlands. 232 Proceedings of the 7th California Oak Symposium: Managing Oak Woodlands in a Dynamic World Case study: wetlands in a working landscape The goal of the overall research on the rails and wetlands is to evaluate the sustainability of small wetlands within the bird’s foothill distribution, given the potential impact of climate change on water accessibility and management. At the outset, it was hypothesized that the area’s hydrology, West Nile Virus from wetland mosquitos, the population ecology of the bird, and the decisions of landowners would have important impacts on the wetlands and birds. A SES framework was applied to identify and understand the interactions among ecological and human factors. In this summation we focus on the results of a survey and interviews with landowners and water managers aimed at understanding management decisions affecting wetlands within the study area. Wetlands in a social-ecological system The secretive California black rail is a small ground-dwelling marsh bird, and was known only from large marshes in San Francisco Bay and along the lower Colorado River until it was “discovered” in the Sierra foothills of Yuba, Nevada, Placer and Butte Counties 20 years ago (Richmond and others 2008). First detected in 1994 at Sierra Foothill Research and Extension Center in Yuba County, the bird persists in small wetlands of 0.1 to 14 ha, where livestock grazing is a common use of local woodlands. Wetlands suitable for rails have shallow flowing water and short vegetation—open water is not of use to the birds. Wetlands used by rails may include densely vegetated marshes produced by springs, purposefully created wetlands, accidental leaks along canals and irrigation pipes, tailwater from irrigated pasture, and the marshy fringes of artificial ponds. Even apparently native springs in the area are likely influenced by extensive and leaky water transport systems that date from the Gold Rush. Water district managers have reported that the dirt-floored canals may lose 30 to 70 percent of their water through evaporation and seepage. An isotope study in Colorado found that ponds as far as 2 km from irrigation canals were fed primarily by irrigation water (Sueltenfuss and others 2013). The SES framework allowed recognition that ecosystem services like the provision of rail habitat are a product of the interaction of humans and environment, rather than arising from the ecosystem alone (Huntsinger and Oviedo 2014). More than three-fourths of the bird’s wetland habitat was found in recent studies to be created or influenced by irrigation and water use related to ranching and, to a lesser extent,
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